


Notice Me

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fili and Kili are stepbrothers, Fluff, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 03:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5148458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kili wants to know how long it will take for people to notice he's unreachable by phone or social media. He's surprised by the answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notice Me

It was funny how one text was the cause of his downward spiral into depression.

It wasn’t even a text that was about _him_. 

It was a text from Tauriel one evening asking him if he had heard from Legolas.

There was a brief fifteen minutes of panic from his redheaded friend as she realized that Kili hadn’t heard from her boyfriend either. Apparently, no one could account for his whereabouts since around lunch time.

It turned out that she had just completely forgotten that he was going to a dinner meeting with a client, but that’s not really the point.

The point was that Legolas, who was working in Boston for a couple of weeks, was out of contact for a few hours and everyone he knew was in a panic.

Kili was pretty sure he could not talk to anyone for a week and nobody would bat an eye.

He dwelled on that thought for an entire day, unable to put it out of his mind.

It was probably his own fault, he realized as he fell back onto his bed in a funk the night after it had been determined that Legolas had _not_ been killed in a fiery car crash.

He was the one who wanted to move to DC. Away from his parents and all his other friends.

But _Fili_ was here.

His stepbrother had seemed happy that he had made the move at first. The blond had helped him move into his apartment and was the one who came with him to pick out of his furniture. That first year he was here, they had hung out nearly every night. But he’d been in DC almost four years, and their nights together had slowly dwindled down to once or twice every month. 

They still texted each other all the time, but they didn’t see each other as much. They didn’t even talk on the phone. It was like Fili was trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

He was pretty sure he knew exactly why that was too.

So most of his time he spent alone.

Oh, it wasn’t as depressing as it sounded. Most of the time he spent at work. It was amazing how much time work took up each week. By the time he got home at around six, it was pretty easy to kill his evenings with dinner and television. 

And with the weekends filled with all the little errands he didn’t get around to during the week, his life certainly didn’t feel empty.

And he _had_ friends. There were guys at work that he went out to happy hour with every once and a while. And he was pretty much in constant contact with Tauriel and Ori, despite the fact that they were all in different cities. Hell, there was even the two guys in the apartment downstairs that he sometimes shared a pizza with.

Still, if he went radio silent, he was pretty sure that no one would notice until he missed his weekly phone call with his dad on Sunday.

It hurt, but mostly because there had been a time when he and Fili were practically inseparable, and Kili wouldn’t have been able to be out of touch for five minute without the blond hunting him down in a panic.

Okay, that might have been a slight exaggeration, but whatever. The point was that that relationship was gone. And it was _his_ fault.

He sighed and rolled over, burying his head in a pillow.

He was pathetic. So what if he could go missing for days without anyone noticing. It wasn’t like no one would _care_. His parents would care. Ori, Tauriel, and Legolas would care. Even Fili would care, for all that he didn’t really want to take up much time for Kili anymore.

It still bothered him to think that no one would notice.

He could fall in the shower, bang his head, and slip into a coma, and no one would know! Hell, the people at work wouldn’t even notice as they would just assume Kili was holed up in his office or sick or something.

No one would even know to check on him.

Kili frowned into his pillowcase. It had started out sad but now that he thought about it, it was dangerous.

He sat up in inspiration. The only thing to do, he decided, was to test how long it took for someone to notice that he hadn’t been in contact. 

Call it an experiment. 

Call it a cruel trick.

Call it a desperate plea for someone to notice him.

Call it whatever you wanted, but Kili’s mind was made up.

He’d start tomorrow as soon as he finished talking to his dad on the phone. No use worrying Bilbo and Thorin over Kili’s insecurities.

 

 

The next day was Sunday, which meant his weekly call back home to assure his parents that he hadn’t died and that he was eating his vegetables. As soon as he hung up, he immediately turned his phone off and logged off of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Tumblr and any other website he could think of that would display his digital presence. He even bypassed watching Netflix and dug out his _Toy Story_ DVDs instead.

He was sure watching all three would kill the rest of his evening. He glanced at his laptop and sighed as he pressed play on the DVD menu.

He didn’t remember the last time he had watched a movie and _just_ watched a movie. He was pretty sure he only did that when he watched a movie he hadn’t seen before.

And it had been _months_ since he bothered watching a new movie.

It was actually refreshing to actually focus on the movie. He had forgotten how much he loved _Toy Story_. He made a sandwich after the first one was over before quickly switching out the DVDs and starting the sequel.

Woody had just watched the last episode of _Woody’s Round-Up_ when Kili was startled by an incessant knocking at his door.

He frowned. He hadn’t been expecting anyone. Maybe someone had the wrong door?

He looked out the peephole and was surprised to see Fili ceaselessly pounding on his door. He quickly opened it, catching the blond mid-knock.

“Kili!” Fili cried, throwing his arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug, surprising Kili in its sudden. Fili pulled back to glare at him. “Where have you been?!?” he demanded.

Kili blinked at him in bewilderment. “Watching _Toy Story…_ Was I supposed to meet you?”

The blond deflated suddenly and pulled him into another tight embrace. “I texted you and called you and you weren’t online anyway…” he muttered into Kili’s shoulder. “You’re never unreachable like that. I was worried.”

He felt sick with guilt. He hadn’t meant to worry anyone. Not like this, at least. And definitely not this soon. It hadn’t even been three hours.

Seriously, what were the odds that Fili would try to get in touch with him so badly _now_?

“Is everything okay?” he asked in concern, thinking with a flash of panic that something had happened to Bilbo or Thorin. “Why were you trying to reach me?”

“What?” Fili said, looking at him as if he were talking nonsense. “I was trying to make sure you were okay!”

“What made you think that I wasn’t thought?” he couldn’t help pressing.

“Kili, you _always_ answer your texts, especially on a Sunday afternoon. And then I called and you didn’t answer and you weren’t on Facebook or G-chat or anything and… I probably sound like a crazy stalker now,” Fili said sheepishly. “Sorry, I’ll just leave you alone now…”

“Oh no!” Kili said, pulling him inside and trying to ignore his guilt. Regardless of how bad he felt about making Fili worry, this was the first time he had seen Fili in three weeks. He wasn’t about to let him just _leave_. “You’re coming in and finishing _Toy Story 2_ with me and watching _Toy Story 3_.”

Fili let Kili push him down onto the couch without protest. Kili plopped down next to him with a grin, pressing play again even as his heart sunk even more at the distance between the two of them on the couch.

There had been a time when he could cuddle up to Fili, and the blond would put an arm around his shoulders and hold him close.

When Jessie started singing “When Somebody Loved Me,” Kili couldn’t help but think of how Fili and he had grown apart. He knew it wasn’t the same. Knew that Fili still loved him.

It wasn’t Fili’s love that had changed. It was _his_.

That’s what had driven Fili away.

He didn’t even realize that tears were streaming down his face until Fili touched his shoulder.

“Kili? Are you okay?”

He shook his head, unable to really say anything, and turned into Fili, burying his face in his chest and clinging to him desperately. He felt stupid as his shoulders started shaking with sobs but he couldn’t stop.

How terrible of a person was he? First, he had fallen in love with his stepbrother and driven him away. Then, he had purposefully made sure that no one could get in touch with him and ended up worrying Fili have to death. And now he was clutching the blond as if he had any right to be comforted by the other man.

And Fili! How much of a saint was he for wrapping his arm around Kili’s trembling form and trying to comfort him?

“I’m sorry!” he cried, muffled though his voice was by Fili’s shirt.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Fili told him.

He pulled away and gave him a pained look. “Yes, I do,” he confessed in a rush. “I turned my phone off and logged off everything to see if anyone would notice. I didn’t meant to worry you so much. I just… really didn’t think it would matter.”

Fili stared at him for a moment and Kili braced himself for the blond’s anger. Instead, of anger, though, Fili just looked sad.

“Oh, Kee,” he murmured, reaching out to cup his cheek, something he hadn’t done in _years_. “Have I let things get so bad between us that you think I wouldn’t _care_ —”

“No!” he was quick to cut him off, not wanting Fili to take the blame for this. “I knew you’d care. I just didn’t know you’d notice so quickly.”

Fili sighed. “As soon as I didn’t see you online anyway, I got worried,” he admitted. “When you didn’t answer my texts or calls, I called your friends downstairs to ask if they had seen you, but they are in Charlottesville doing some vineyard hopping. Kili, you gotta know that even if we don’t see each other very much, I _always_ keep a check on you to make sure you’re okay.”

A warm feeling spread through his chest but he looked at Fili in confusion. “So why don’t you ever want to see me?”

Guilt clouded Fili’s blue eyes. “It’s just better if we limit our time together,” he said vaguely.

Kili swallowed thickly. “You don’t have to spare my feelings, you know,” he muttered. “I know this is my fault.”

“Kili…”

“I’m sorry, okay?” he said, not letting Fili get another word in. “I didn’t mean to fall in love with you! It just happened! But can’t we just… _try_ to ignore it? I won’t get weird or anything, I promise!”

Fili was giving him a gobsmacked look and Kili realized with dawning horror that the blond hadn’t known.

What had he just done?

“You’re in love with me?” Fili asked faintly, an odd glint in his blue eyes.

Kili nodded hesitantly, hoping he wouldn’t hate him forever now.

“Oh, Kee,” he breathed as a smile slowly spread across his face. “That’s why I was putting distance between us.”

“But you didn’t know?” he said, even more confused now.

Fili shook his head. “No, I didn’t know you were in love with me,” he agreed, leaning in close so that their foreheads were touching. “But I knew that _I_ was in love with _you_.”

Oh, Kili thought as Fili brought their lips together in a gentle kiss.

As soon as he processed what was happening, he pressed closer and deepened the kiss, not wanting to waste anymore time.

“Move in with me?” Fili asked breathlessly as they broke apart.

Kili laughed at the question but nodded. He had wanted to live with Fili from the moment he moved to DC, but the blond hadn’t offered and he hadn’t asked. It was a good thing, though, he knew. He wouldn’t have been able to handle them living together as brothers.

Now, they were going to be so much more.

The End.

 


End file.
